1 I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit,

2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

5 Of them are the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, forever blessed. Amen.

6 But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel,

7 nor are they all children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but, »Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.«

8 In other words, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants.

9 For this is what the promise said: »About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.«

10 And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our father Isaac,

11 though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might stand, not because of works but because of his call,

12 she was told, »The older will serve the younger.«

13 As it is written, »Jacob I loved,but Esau I hated.«

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Certainly not!

15 For he says to Moses, »I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,and I will have compassionon whom I have compassion.«

16 So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy.

17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, »I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.«

18 Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens the heart of whom he wills.

19 You will say to me then, »Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?«

20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is formed say to him who formed it, »Why have you made me like this?«

21 Does not the potter have right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

22 What if God, choosing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory,

24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

25 As indeed he says in Hosea: »I will call them who were not my people ‘my people,’and her who was not beloved I will call ‘my beloved.’«

26 »And it will happen that in the very placewhere it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’«

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: »Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.

28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on the earth with speed and finality.«

29 And as Isaiah said: »Unless the Lord of hosts had left us children,we would have become like Sodom,and we would have been made like Gomorrah.«

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;

31 but Israel, who pursued the law of righteousness, has not attained that law.

32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,

33 as it is written: »Behold, I lay in Zion a stone that will make men stumble,and a rock that will make them fall;and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.«